Tributes paid to deputy mayoress who rode elephant through Chichester

Tributes have been paid by family and friends to a former city councillor who died aged 87.

Trish de Watteville, who passed away peacefully on May 25, served as a Chichester city councillor and deputy mayoress in the 1970s and 80s.

The mother of five, who lived in Summersdale, was first elected the city council in 1976, then again in 1979. She served as deputy mayoress in 1981, during which time she spent a day carrying a cricket ball in unusual ways to raise money for charity. This included holding it during a parachute jump and even while riding an elephant down North Street.

Her daughter, Sophie Robins, said she missed everything about her.

She said: “I cared for her for 20 years, just shopping and doing jobs so we were very close.

“She was quite extroverted and always happy and smiling. She talked to anybody and had a lot of friends.”

There will be a memorial service for Trish at mid-day on August 15 at St Mary’s Church, East Lavant.

Sophie said her mother played tennis and squash at the Chichester Lawn Tennis and Squash Club every week, enjoyed Scottish dancing and had a pet parrot for 20 years.

Trish ran a business in the 1970s called Kenway tours, which ran a historic walking tour of the city and a coach tour of the surrounding areas.

She also worked as a mushroom picker in 1976 and worked in Hoopers Florist in South Street in the late 1980s.

Anne Scicluna, councillor for Chichester South, worked with Trish for four years.

She said: “We always got on well together and we had a similar sense of humour. I really enjoyed working with her.”